SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Technology Stocks : General Magic -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: ynot who wrote (5032)2/8/1999 10:55:00 PM
From: Paul J Osborn  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 10081
 
Seems Everybody's got a internet phone interface, is it VUI, Is it Motorola, Does Cisco make phones?, guess they do now, it must be real, it must be. It's posted on Yahoo message board.

Monday February 8, 7:35 pm Eastern Time

FOCUS-Cisco, Motorola in wireless Internet pact

(Recasts lede, adds comments from conference call, changes dateline; pvs NEW ORLEANS)

CHICAGO, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Remember when surfing meant going to the beach instead of sitting in front of a computer?

Internet junkies will soon be able to surf the Net anywhere -- even at the beach -- with a new wireless Internet service designed by leading computer-networking company Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - news) and wireless phone maker Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news).

The two companies said on Monday they would invest up to $1 billion over the next four to five years to deliver a wireless Internet. Some services may be available as early as August, while most should be up and running by the end of the year, the companies said in a conference call.

''This extends the Internet to a world without wires,'' Cisco Executive Vice President, Don Listwin, said in a statement.

Cisco, of San Jose, Calif., and Motorola, of Schaumburg, Ill., plan to jump-start a new category of products and services by broadcasting IP (Internet Protocol) signals over the air anytime and anywhere. The idea is to unite the convenience and mobility of wireless devices with the power to access large amounts of information from the Internet, including data, voice and video communications.

''The tethered world has really slowed people down,'' Listwin said in the conference call.

Through this deal, Cisco and Motorola are trying to break into the potentially lucrative wireless Internet business and keep pace with telecommunications equipment supply groups such as Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LU - news). Lucent in November bought WaveAccess for $50 million, giving it access to radio technology for wireless Internet services.

Motorola and Cisco hope to capitalize on the explosive growth in Internet and wireless subscribers, Bo Hedfors, president of Motorola's network solutions sector, said in the conference call with reporters and analysts.

''Today we have around 800 million wire line subscribers in the world, 200 million wireless and 200 million Internet users,'' Hedfors said. ''We expect that, by the year 2005, there will be 1 billion wire line, 1 billion wireless and 1 billion Internet users. What this alliance with Cisco and Motorola is all about is to make sure that (wireless and Internet) grow together and we create a wireless Internet.''

Motorola and Cisco said plan to invite other companies to use their technology to expand the wireless Internet network.

''We will present this new architecture as a white paper in May of this year to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to be a part of this,'' Hedfors said.

Other wireless industry leaders such as Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON - news) Corp., Cellnet, Nextel Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:NXTL - news) and AirTouch Communications Inc. (NYSE:ATI - news) have voiced support for the new effort, Cisco and Motorola said.

Motorola on Monday teamed up with Nextel and Netscape Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:NSCP - news) to offer a wireless telephone package combining voice, data and Internet services.

Shares Motorola rose $1.625 to $68.25, in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while Cisco's shares fell $1.50 to $99.75 on the Nasdaq.



To: ynot who wrote (5032)2/8/1999 11:16:00 PM
From: Paul J Osborn  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 10081
 
Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah..
Blah, Blow, Balah,
Motorola, Cisco, 1 Billion Blah Dollars, Next 4 to 5 years, Blah, Blah.
Some Functionality, this year, "MOST", this Blah Blah year,
Read the Blah blah .
How come they want to spend $1Billion next 4-5 years, when the Blah Blah post says most functionality on the Motorola/Cisco phone can be delivered "THIS" Year. If that's so, why spend the Billion, if most of the functionality can be delivered this year. BLAH BLAH BLAH.
Blah.
BRING ON THE INTERNET PHONE SCOTTY, Beam me up now.
Good solid volume, what's with this Motorola/Cisco phone next 4-5 years Blah Blah. Keeping up with the Joneses (Motorola Cisco Magic Phone? - nice ring??). Lucent Cisco, and Motorola all have announcements for an Internet Phone, Nextel, the Bells, where are they? Go ahead, heat up this stock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Make it ROCK



To: ynot who wrote (5032)2/8/1999 11:40:00 PM
From: Sea Otter  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 10081
 
That Nuance/Netsage announcement sure looks
competitive, at least in terms of technology. They
appear to be positioning it differently, but
SR+"Social Intelligence"+Content Interfaces pretty
much defines Portico from the engineering perspective.

I expect everyone and their dog will jump into
this segment over the next 12 months. Maybe the sounds
of all those splashing canines will wake investors up.
Forget portals. Portico and its ilk define the next really
big internet play (and device/desktop play), with
valuations to match.

Sea Otter



To: ynot who wrote (5032)2/9/1999 6:21:00 AM
From: Mark Oliver  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 10081
 
<http://www.dragonsys.com/frameset/currentnews.html
nuance.com
VUI>

The first story you link is a fascinating idea, which I have thought, was a perfect solution for a long time. It uses speech recognition to translate audio files into written language, which can then be categorized and sorted. Fantastic. The hardest job of Speech Recognition is handling the translation in real time, but when you think about it, you could plug audio files into a translating program and let it take much longer to achieve greater accuracy.

It shows what I've been thinking for some time, Dragon is the most interesting of the standard ASR companies. I will be very interested in the IPO.

But, what on earth has this to do with VUI?

Second, is the PR from Nuance about the addition of NetSage to the V-Commerce Alliance, of which General Magic is also a member. This is an amazing article and I'll be damned if I can figure out what they are doing. Somebody needs to learn how to write.

But, 2 things are clear. Yes, Nuance has again a speech recognition program and they are using it to make call centers, and other VUI's of which General Magic is a customer. Netsage seems to be in the business of building pre-recorded snippets that can be strung together to make sentences that sound like a more natural voice than the typical TTS computer generated voice. Nothing new here. In fact, if you look at the last part of the story, you will see that Netsage is working with General Magic.

About NetSage

NetSage licenses the NetSage Social Intelligence Server and provides professional services that add intelligent social interfaces to existing Web- and Voice-based automated customer systems. Through its world-class creative services and patented Agent-Based >> >Instruction™ (ABI) technology, NetSage is creating Sages, intelligent social interfaces that personalize users' relationships with automated systems. NetSage's technology, research, >> creative, and management teams have unparalleled experience in the social interface research, >> educational technology, Internet, multimedia, animation and software fields. NetSage is based in San Francisco and Denver>> . NetSage is now providing technology, professional services and creative services for clients including Microsoft, Omron, General Magic, Thomson Interactive, and Schwab. Additional information can be found at netsage.com.


I think once you get use to reading these things, you'll find the market applications for VUI are far and wide. One thing the people at General Magic have always made clear was they needed to stay focused on a few businesses that they feel will generate revenues and do them well.

The old General Magic was a collection of mad scientists who had free rein to do whatever seemed cool. Well, they uncovered some really great technology, but they also lost control of the purpose of making money. Steve Markman came into the company to turn this mess around and so far he's done an amazing job. This company has technology that goes very deep and for some reason you just don't get it.

Regards,

Mark